Top 6 Tyrese Haliburton moments with Pacers for his 6th birthday

December 7, 2023: 27 points and dagger in IST semifinal vs Bucks

A resounding win against the Celtics in front of your screaming home crowd is one thing, but that was only a fraction of the battle. After only two days of rest and a flight to catch, the Pacers had to do it all again, this time in the setting of Las Vegas, which is where the final three IST games were held.

This time, instead of facing the Boston Celtics, the Pacers had to face another East contender in the Milwaukee Bucks, a team they had beaten before, albeit by only two points and without Damian Lillard active.

That said, the Bucks were on quite a roll themselves, being the only team besides the Pacers to go undefeated and just knocking off the New York Knicks in their own quarterfinal game. Once again, the same people who predicted Indiana's demise against Boston returned to predict, or perhaps hope, that Indiana would finally fall to the hands of Giannis Antetokounmpo and company.

Once again, Tyrese Haliburton and company were not fazed as they fought off a 43-point third quarter by the Bucks to once again get the win and advance to the IST finals. Once again, Haliburton starred as the man of the hour, scoring 27 points on 11/19 from the field to go along with 15 assists as he further showcased his skills to the national media and casual fans around the world.

The Pacers were also hit with some adversity this game as well, as Andrew Nembhard went down with a knee injury in the fourth quarter with seven minutes left which almost crushed the team's spirit for the rest of the night.

The loss of Nembhard, who was playing quite well before the injury, could have easily brought the team down the rest of the way and put them completely out of their groove, but it ended up doing the exact opposite. Indiana went on a 23-15 run in the final seven minutes of the game after Nembhard's injury to put the game away from Milwaukee's grasp.

And who was the one to put the game out of reach for good? The same person who's birthday it is, as Tyrese Haliburton hit a massive stepback three to put Indiana up eight with 48 seconds remaining, after which he looked at his wrist and stated "I know what time it is," an obvious shot at Damian Lillard's 'Dame Time' celebration, to which Lillard did not take kindly to and which might factor in during the sixth moment very soon.

Indiana's IST Cindarella run unfortunately came to an end a few days later at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers, but Tyrese Haliburton made sure they would not be forgotten to time.

To this day, you can still find some people who discovered Haliburton through that two-game stretch and it did quite a bit in boosting Indiana's rep to the national media and casual fans.